International Conference
Knowledge, Youth and Global Commons
-
Orienting Knowledge Systems and Inter-Generational Relations
towards Sustainable Development and Rio+20
Date:
15. & 16. September 2011
Venue:
Maria Loretto Palace, Klagenfurt am Wörthersee (Austria)
Organizers:
Austrian Science and Research Liaison Office Ljubljana <http://www.aso.zsi.at> www.aso.zsi.at
International Association for the Advancement of Innovative Approaches to Global Challenges <http://www.glocha.info> www.glocha.info
Academic Council on the United Nations System – Vienna Liaison office <http://www.acuns.org> www.acuns.org
General Information
"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
(source: World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED). Brundtland Report: Our common future. 1987)
Aiming for ‘sustainable development’ which would meet the needs of present generations without compromising the needs of future generations – this has been the promise of the heads of states and other global political leaders who gathered at Rio Earth summit in 1992.
Where do we stand 20 years later?
Progressing climate change and dead-locked post-Kyoto negotiations, biodiversity loss, ongoing extreme poverty in many places of the world, escalating sovereign debt crisis and resulting cuts in public investment in education, social welfare .. in times where the number of billionaires according to Forbes grew 20 % in one year alone etc. are indicators that humanity is far away from fulfilling the Rio 1992 summit promise and that something is systemically/radically wrong in the way we manage global wealth.
The population group most exposed to the non-delivery of global sustainable development governance are global youth and future generations in general. For sustainable development concept to function, it is crucial that global resources management decisively maps and safeguards crucial sustainable development resources, tame market economy forces and correct market failures where they lead to destruction/overconsumption of natural resources and mobilize innovative multi-stakeholder partnerships for global public goods/global commons like provision of sustainable development related knowledge and human capacity worldwide.
United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012 seems to be the one big window of opportunity for global community to take stock of the “State of the future”, its many challenges and systemic risks for ecosystems degradation and governance failure and to forge – with substantial global governance innovations - a strong global problem solving alliance which provides a multilevel and multiactor governance framework for coherent collaborative action which would involve every global citizen.
At the ‘Knowledge, Youth and Global Commons’ conference youth from around the world will have a voice to contribute to the process of UNCSD preparation.
A special focus of the conference will be on ‘knowledge’ as the key global sustainable development governance coordination element.
Another specific focus of the conference will be the IAAI proposal to frame all those resources that are needed by present and future generations for sustainable development as ‘global commons’ and to launch in the context of Rio 2012 a multi-stakeholder partnership (and a related documentation and assessment system) for global commons growth based on a shared social responsibility for such global commons. This would provide a new institutional framework for civic engagement and multilevel governance and help strengthen the knowledge base for global governance.
There is no registration fee!
For further information (Agenda, Accomodation…) see <http://www.aso.zsi.at/aktuelles/3852.html> http://www.aso.zsi.at/aktuelles/3852.html
Registration and travel grant application form is available here: <http://www.aso.zsi.at/aktuelles/3852.html> http://www.aso.zsi.at/aktuelles/3852.html
Cal for Applications - Travel grants for participants from SEE
For participants from SEE countries there are 12 travel grants available. Please fill in the field application form ( <http://www.aso.zsi.at/aktuelles/3852.html> http://www.aso.zsi.at/aktuelles/3852.html) with information about your institutional background, relevant qualifications and motivations for attendance if you would like to receive support for participation in the conference till September 7, 2011 to aso-ljubljana@zsi.at.
The conference will be video recorded and will be made available as video-on-demand soon
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